Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore Part 24

There were present--Mr Joseph Gutteres Henriques, President; Baron de Rothschild, Sir Moses Montefiore, Messrs Moses Mocatta, I. L.

Goldsmid, Jacob Montefiore, Isaac Cohen, Henry H. Cohen, Samuel Bensusan, Dr Loewe, Messrs Louis Lucas, A. A. Goldsmid, Louis Cohen, H. de Castro, Haim Guedalla, Simon Samuel, Joel Davis, David Salamons, Abraham Levy, Jonas Levy, Laurence Myers, Solomon Cohen, Barnard van Oven, M.D., S. J. Waley, and F. H. Goldsmid.

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted:--

"That this meeting has learned with extreme concern and disgust that there have been lately revived in the East those false and atrocious charges, so frequently brought against the Jews during the middle ages, of committing murders in order to use the blood of the murdered as an ingredient in the food during the religious ceremony of Pa.s.sover, charges which, in those times, repeatedly served as a pretext for the robbery and ma.s.sacre of persons of the Jewish faith, but which have long disappeared from this part of the world, with the fierce and furious prejudices that gave them birth.

"That this meeting is anxious to express its horror at finding that, on the ground of these abominable calumnies, numbers of Jews have been seized at Damascus and at Rhodes; that many children have been imprisoned, and almost totally deprived of food; that of the adults seized, several have been tortured till they died, and others have been sentenced to death, and, it is believed, executed, although the only evidence of their guilt was the pretended confessions wrung by torture from their alleged accomplices.

"That this meeting earnestly request the Governments of England, France, and Austria to remonstrate with those Governments under which these atrocities have taken place, against their continuance.

"That this meeting confidently relies on the sympathy and humanity of the British nation to exert its influence and authority to stay such abominable proceedings, and that the President, Joseph Gutteres Henriques, Esq.; The Baron de Rothschild, Sir Moses Montefiore, and Messrs I. L. Goldsmid, Jacob Montefiore, David Salamons, A. A.

Goldsmid, and F. H. Goldsmid do form a deputation to request a conference on the subject with Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

"That these resolutions be advertised in the newspapers."

A letter was read from the Rev. Dr Hirschel, Chief Rabbi, expressive of his regret that his infirmities prevented his attendance at the meeting, and declaring his concern at the revival of such false and calumnious a.s.sertions, and his horror at such atrocious cruelties.

The meeting was attended by Monsieur Cremieux, Vice-President of the _Consistoire Central des Israelites Francais_, who addressed the meeting, expressing his concurrence and sympathy in its proceedings.

On April 30th the Committee proceeded to Downing Street, and were most kindly received by Lord Palmerston. He promised to use his influence with Mohhammad Ali and the Turkish Government to put a stop to such atrocities. Sir Moses mentioned on this occasion, when Lord Palmerston was speaking of his visit to Palestine, Mr Young's humanity at Jerusalem, and also the fact that the Jews were desirous of being employed in agricultural pursuits.

On June 15th at a meeting of the Deputies and Representatives of all the Synagogues, including the Rev. Dr Hirschel, Rev. D. Meldola, Monsieur Cremieux, and Rev. D. Bibas, Sir Moses was requested to proceed, with Monsieur Cremieux, to Alexandria and Damascus, to which request he acceded.

On June 23rd he attended a meeting at the Great Synagogue, where the resolutions adopted at the previous meeting (June 15th) were confirmed, and he declared his readiness to go.

On the 24th of June he went with Baron Lionel de Rothschild to the Foreign Office. Lord Palmerston was most friendly, and read to them the despatches to Colonel Hodges and Lord Ponsonby. That to Colonel Hodges was most strongly worded, calling on him to address Mohhammad Ali in writing to urge him to compensate the sufferers and remove those officers who had misconducted themselves in Damascus. Lord Palmerston further said he would give Sir Moses letters to Colonel Hodges, telling him to afford him every protection and a.s.sistance, and desiring him to apply to Mohhammad Ali to give him (Sir Moses) every facility for the investigation of the affair. His Lords.h.i.+p also added that he would give him any other letters he might require.

On Friday, July 3rd, there was a crowded and enthusiastic meeting in the Egyptian Hall at the Mansion House, of bankers, merchants, and many influential and learned British Christians, for the purpose of expressing their sympathy with the Israelites, and their earnest wishes for the success of Sir Moses Montefiore previous to his starting on the mission to the East. Mr Alderman Thompson took the chair. The princ.i.p.al speakers were the Lord Mayor, Sir Chapman Marshall, J. Abel Smith, John Masterman, S. Gurney, Sir Charles Forbes, Dr Bowring, Daniel O'Connell, and the Hon. and Rev. Noel. The result of the meeting was highly satisfactory.

In the interval between these meetings Sir Moses attended the Queen's Drawing-Room, and was most graciously addressed there by Prince George of Cambridge, who said he was glad to see him, and reminded him of his having met him at Malta.

At a meeting of the Board of Deputies on the 26th Sir Moses was unanimously elected their president, on the resignation of Mr J. H.

Henriques. He attended the annual festival dinner of the Jews'

Hospital, when the Duke of Suss.e.x presided. On the 11th of June he went to the Merchant Taylors' Hall to meet the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George, the latter being made an honorary member of the Company. Taking special interest in the abolition of slavery, Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore both attended the grand meeting of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, when Prince Albert took the chair and addressed the company. On June 15th he was present at a meeting of the Board of Deputies of the British Jews, and agreed to the addresses of congratulation prepared by the Hon. Secretary, to be sent to Her Majesty, Prince Albert, and the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, on the occasion of the escape of the Queen from the attempt made on her life in the Park on the 10th of June. The address to Her Majesty was subsequently presented by him, as President of the Board of Deputies, accompanied by four other gentlemen, at St James' Palace; and Sir Moses was then presented to the Queen by the Duke of Norfolk, on his going to the East. The next day Sir Moses and the same four gentlemen presented the address to the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, who received them most amiably, and enquired particularly after Sir Moses' health. He then proceeded with them to Buckingham Palace, and presented the address to Prince Albert, who also received them very graciously.

Sir Moses, as the representative of the Jews in the British Empire, now commenced making his arrangements for the departure of the Mission, and Monsieur Cremieux, as representative of the Jews in France, took similar steps.

Sir Moses selected for his companions Mr D. W. Wire (his former under-Sheriff and afterwards Lord Mayor of London), Dr Madden, a distinguished author and well-known traveller in the East, and myself.

Monsieur Cremieux engaged as his companion Monsieur Solomon Munk, a distinguished savant of Paris.

Before I proceed to give the account of the present mission, as taken from the entries in Sir Moses' diary and from my own personal observation, I deem it necessary to direct the attention of the reader to the origin of accusations similar to those made at Damascus, which were brought against the Jews in former times; and to point out the reason why, even to this day, they are not without effect in some of the most enlightened countries.

Tertullia.n.u.s (J. Septimus Florens), one of the Fathers of the Church, who lived in the second century, complains in his work ent.i.tled "Apologet. advers. gentes" (chap. 8), of the adherents to the religion to which he himself belonged being accused of sacrificing and eating children. Upon which, Pamelius, in his commentary on the same chapter (which he dedicated to Philip II. and Pope Gregory VIII.), observes, that the accusation has its origin in the misunderstanding of the sense of all those pa.s.sages in the New Testament which refer to the Agapes. These verses have been taken by the uninitiated in their literal sense.

The heathens at that time a.s.serted that the Christians used human blood at their Pa.s.sover. Thus we find the origin of that horrible accusation in the first three centuries of the Christian era; not until the thirteenth century was it brought against the Jews, viz., in the year 1235 in Fulda, 1250 in Spain, 1264 in London, 1283 in Bachrach, Moravia, 1285 in Munich.

If these charges were true, it might be asked, how is it that the Jews, who celebrated the Pa.s.sover festival fifteen hundred years before the Christian era, had never been accused of such a crime before? The answer to this question is to be found in the history of the thirteenth century.

It was in this century, when fanaticism and hatred of race prevailed, and when persecutions for witchcraft and the burning of heretics and sorcerers were of frequent occurrence, that it appeared opportune to bring against the Jews the same accusation which had been formerly brought against the ancestors of their accusers, viz., the using of Christian blood for the Pa.s.sover. The wealth of the Jews in several parts of Europe, as well as the high position to which they were raised in Spain by the rulers of the land, had aroused the jealousy of their adversaries. The unfounded nature of the accusation against them was so palpable that the heads of the Church deemed it necessary to defend and protect them. Thus Pope Innocent IV. published a Bull on the 5th of July 1247, addressed to the heads of the Church in France and Germany, officially refuting the demoniacal accusation (S.

Baronitas Annales eccles. ad annum 1247, No. 84). I give here a translation of it in order to afford the reader the opportunity of acquainting himself with the contents of that important doc.u.ment:--

"Lyons, _3rd July 1248_.

"Pope Innocent, the servant of the servants of G.o.d, sends his apostolic greeting and blessing to the right reverend Fathers, Bishops, and Archbishops in Germany.

"We have received from Germany the sad news that in your towns and dioceses there is a wish to despoil the Jews, in an illegal manner, of their property, and that, for this purpose, malicious counsels and different false accusations are brought against them. Without considering that they were, in a certain way, entrusted with the care of the Christian faith; that the command of Holy Scripture, 'Thou shalt not commit murder,' was given to them; and that, by their law, they are forbidden to touch corpses on the Pa.s.sover, they are accused of eating in company the heart of a murdered child, and if the dead body of any human being is found, they are believed to be the murderers, although such practices are in direct contradiction to their laws. By such false accusations they are oppressed, and deprived of all their goods, although they have never been brought before any judge and found guilty, in spite of the privileges graciously granted them by the Apostolic Chair. This is against all human and divine law, and brings these said Jews into a worse condition than that of their forefathers under the Pharaohs of Egypt, and forces them, in their misery, to leave the places where their fathers had been settled from time immemorial. In their fear of being exterminated entirely, they have sought the protection of the Apostolic Chair, and we hereby forbid every unjust oppression of the said Jews, whose conversion we trust to the mercy of G.o.d, according to the promise of the Prophet, that those of them who remain shall be saved; and we commend them to you, our brethren, through this Apostolic letter, that you may show favour to them, and help them to their right, when they have been unjustly imprisoned; and that you in no case permit them to be oppressed for the said or similar causes. Those who are guilty of molesting them in this way are to be punished by doing penance in the Church, without regard to their station.

"Given at Lyons, on the 3rd of July, in the fifth year of our Pontificate."

In 1275 the Emperor Rudolf of Hapsburgh confirmed this Bull, in a decree, sealed with his great seal, which is still to be seen in the Archives of the Town of Cologne. The t.i.tle of this decree is, "I, Rudolphus, Rex Rom., do hereby confirm the privileges granted to the Jews by Popes Gregory and Innocent, and declare to be untrue, that which some Christians say, that they do eat the heart of a dead child on the day of their Pa.s.sover."

The contents of this decree are a literal translation of the Bull given above. Another Bull issued by Gregory, says, amongst other things:--

"Gregory, &c.... Following the example set us by our predecessors of blessed memory, Calixt, Cugen, Alexander, Colostin, Honorius, and Gregory, we agree to the prayer of the Jews, and will hold the s.h.i.+eld of our protection over them. We also strictly forbid, that any Christian force them, against their will, to be baptised, as only those can be considered as Christians who, from their own free will, accept baptism. Nor shall any Christian dare, without a judgment from us, to wound or to kill them, to deprive them of their money, or in any way to molest them in the privileges granted to them in the places where they live."

The Emperor concludes his decree with the following words: "We confirm and permit, in our Royal mercy, by this act to the said Jews, all and everything which was granted and given to them by the Roman Popes, so that they may live securely under the shadow of our protection, and that they shall not be condemned, in any case whatever, unless properly judged and found guilty by the righteous testimony of Jews and Christians."

Considering that M. Achille Laurent has published a book, in which he presumes to give what he calls a "Procedure complete dirigee en 1840 contre des Juifs de Damas,"--a book which is replete with outbursts of hatred against the Jews, and has, since its publication, unfortunately served almost as a text-book in the hands of their adversaries,--I think it desirable, in addition to the declaration of the Pope given above, to introduce to the reader the names of some eminent Christian scholars, who have but recently (since the accusations of Kohling and Geza roused the attention of the public) expressed their opinion in the works they have published; some of which were written by the special order of the Courts of Law in Austria, and the Universities of Amsterdam, Leyden, Utrecht, and Copenhagen.

The Right Rev. Bishop Dr Kopp, of Fulda; the Right. Rev. Dr J. H.

Reinkens, in Bonn; Professor Dr Franz Delitzsch; Professor Dr A.

Dillman; Professor Dr G. Ebers; Professor Dr H. L. Fleischer, in Leipzig; Professor Dr H. Kalkar, in Copenhagen; Professor Dr Paul de Lagarde, in Gottingen; Professor Dr Merx, in Heidelberg; Dr Alois Muller, in Vienna; Professor Dr Th. Noldecke, in Straszburg; Professor Dr Riehm, Professor Dr Carl Siegfried of Vienna, Professor Dr B. Stade of Gieszen, Professor Dr Sommer of Konigsberg, Professor Dr Strack of Berlin, and Dr August Wunsche of Dresden.

A book ent.i.tled, "Christliche Zeugnisse gegen die Blutbeschuldigung der Juden," published by Walther and Apolant, Berlin, 1882, gives a compilation of all the statements on the subject made by these authors, all proving the accusation to be a calumny.

To take possession of the wealth acc.u.mulated by the industrious and sober habits of the Jews, and to deprive them of the important positions which they had, by their uprightness and ability, obtained, was the object their adversaries had in view in raising this accusation in the thirteenth century, and the same object can be traced in the persecutions which, in the present century, in some parts of the world, continue to affect individuals, and sometimes even whole communities.

_July 7th._--We proceeded to the London Bridge Wharf, where we were met by the members of the Ecclesiastical Courts, both of the German and Portuguese congregations, and many others of our brethren. "I should think," Sir Moses observes in his diary, "there were more than one hundred Jews waiting to see us set off, all giving us their blessing, and wis.h.i.+ng us health, success, and a safe return. May the Almighty hearken to their prayers, and grant their pet.i.tion."

It was blowing very hard when we reached Gravesend, and we determined to land, which was not effected without some difficulty and inconvenience. Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore were much fatigued, having spent nearly the whole of the previous night in writing letters and arranging various important matters relative to the Mission.

_July 8th._--We went on board the _Arrow_ a little before eight, and reached the French coast before eleven o'clock. The weather being squally and the sea rough, we and several others remained on board till the vessel could enter the port. We came to anchor, and continued to roll about till half-past four, when we landed in safety.

_Thursday, July 9th._--Found our carriages, and servants all well at Boulogne, and ready to receive us. Having taken some refreshment, we proceeded to Abbeville, and travelled all night, arriving shortly after mid-day in Paris.

During our stay there we had frequent interviews with the members of the Rothschild family, who took a deep interest in our Mission. A meeting of the Consistoire de France on the subject was held at the house of Baron Anselm de Rothschild, which I attended together with Dr Loewe and Mr Wire. Monsieur Cremieux made a fervent appeal to all present, and the result was very satisfactory. We left Paris on the 13th July, together with Dr Madden, who had come from London to join us. Monsieur and Madame Cremieux joined our party at Avignon, and together we reached Ma.r.s.eilles on the 20th. The Grand Rabbin, with the princ.i.p.al members of the community, immediately came to welcome us; afterwards we went on board the _Minos_ to inspect our cabins.

_Tuesday, July 31st._--Repaired early in the morning to the Synagogue, and prayed for the safety and success of our Mission. At 4.30 P.M. we went on board the _Minos_; Messrs Palmer and Taylor, of the Imperial Continental Gas a.s.sociation, accompanied us. Mr Moore, the Queen's messenger, and Mr Doyle, of the _Chronicle_, were fellow pa.s.sengers.

The wind blew very fresh when first we started, but the evening was very fine.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1840.